Is Nintendo a looming threat to EA?

EA - Image 1 Gameswank recently ran an article discussing the implications of Nintendo’s hardware dominance on the game industry’s software market. The verdict? Nintendo’s dominance could be a huge pain in the neck for the biggest third party game maker in the world.

To put everything into perspective, we have to understand how EA became the monster that it is today. The company started producing titles like Madden and NBA Live in the mid-90’s in addition to its already amazing game library. What the annual sports titles gave EA essentially was an income source which was easy to port across platforms, delivered yearly, and was easy to update, requiring skin-deep tweaks, updating rosters, and adding a new feature or two. The model worked to perfection, and EA grew to what it was until 2005.

However, as the previous console generation entered its twilight, EA found itself in a peculiar situation. The sales and profits dropped, and the platforms the company banked on didn’t quite sell as well as expected. Instead, Nintendo came out with two quirky pieces of hardware and stole the show from Sony and Microsoft.

 

That’s where the problem started for EA. It didn’t quite bank as much on the Nintendo backyard as it did with the other two, especially Sony. EA’s games have always catered to core gamers, Gameswank said. The paradigm of good graphics and realistic gameplay, however, wasn’t the in-thing with the DS and the Wii. Here, users embraced more friendly games with clever mechanics. If the Wii and the DS end up dominating the war, EA might have to get a new suit on.

Analysts, however, aren’t counting EA out. They say that the company still has the biggest and most experienced research and development departments in all of gaming,, making it a force to reckon with all the time. “I’m disappointed in EA recently,” says Dan Ahrens, an industry analyst, but he added that at the end of the day, EA will still be a strong player.

“EA is the 800-pound gorilla. They’re always going to be dominant,” adds fellow analyst Todd Greenwald. We certainly hope that all turns out well with EA and its games that we’ve all come to love.

EA - Image 1 Gameswank recently ran an article discussing the implications of Nintendo’s hardware dominance on the game industry’s software market. The verdict? Nintendo’s dominance could be a huge pain in the neck for the biggest third party game maker in the world.

To put everything into perspective, we have to understand how EA became the monster that it is today. The company started producing titles like Madden and NBA Live in the mid-90’s in addition to its already amazing game library. What the annual sports titles gave EA essentially was an income source which was easy to port across platforms, delivered yearly, and was easy to update, requiring skin-deep tweaks, updating rosters, and adding a new feature or two. The model worked to perfection, and EA grew to what it was until 2005.

However, as the previous console generation entered its twilight, EA found itself in a peculiar situation. The sales and profits dropped, and the platforms the company banked on didn’t quite sell as well as expected. Instead, Nintendo came out with two quirky pieces of hardware and stole the show from Sony and Microsoft.

 

That’s where the problem started for EA. It didn’t quite bank as much on the Nintendo backyard as it did with the other two, especially Sony. EA’s games have always catered to core gamers, Gameswank said. The paradigm of good graphics and realistic gameplay, however, wasn’t the in-thing with the DS and the Wii. Here, users embraced more friendly games with clever mechanics. If the Wii and the DS end up dominating the war, EA might have to get a new suit on.

Analysts, however, aren’t counting EA out. They say that the company still has the biggest and most experienced research and development departments in all of gaming,, making it a force to reckon with all the time. “I’m disappointed in EA recently,” says Dan Ahrens, an industry analyst, but he added that at the end of the day, EA will still be a strong player.

“EA is the 800-pound gorilla. They’re always going to be dominant,” adds fellow analyst Todd Greenwald. We certainly hope that all turns out well with EA and its games that we’ve all come to love.

Add a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *